The average gas price in the U.S. is over $3 right now, and there's a good chance it'll go higher before too long. What do you do in this situation if you're a car dealer with a lot full of SUVs and big crossovers? You start being cautious.

In the market for a new car this summer? Has it been long enough since the last gas price spike that you're not really worried about possible pain at the pump? If so, then you're like a lot of U.S. car buyers right now, according to new figures from AutoTrader.com.

It wasn't all that long ago that Ford was temporarily idling plants that were building SUVs and shifting some over to smaller cars because of low demand for the gas guzzlers. Those days are apparently over, because Ford Americas president Mark Fields told Automotive News [sub. req.] that FoMoCo will increase production of full-sized SUVs. Details on timing and numbers were not released, but we do know that the Ford Expedition had only a 31-day supply in December as sales jumped 45 percent and th

The fickle nature of the American consumer is on obvious display in car dealerships across the country right now. With the government sponsoring a giant garage cleaning through the CARS ("cash for clunkers") program, people are taking old vehicles and turning them into new ones, with a fancy $4,500 check attached. Now that CARS has been active for a short while, early numbers are in: the trucks and SUVs that were so incredibly popular just a few years ago are being dumped by the thousands for sm

A gent named Chris at VW of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, just received the order guide for the Touareg V6 TDI, and the numbers reveal that it will arrive on our shores in January with a base price of $42,800, or $43,490 with the destination charge. That base price is $3,500 more than the Touareg V6 FSI, money that will get you slightly less horsepower but about 150 lb-ft. more torque and about 4.5 more mpg. Options include the Luxury Package for $2,700, Tech Package for $3,350, and Luxury Plus for $

Not too long ago, Hyundai didn't compete directly with anything coming out of Germany (or perhaps that's the other way around). Now Hyundai is determined not to let up on its recently-made foes. Today it unveiled the R-Engine, a new diesel in two capacities that the company says "can comfortably beat the power outputs of all German and French competitors." So there.

Pickup and SUV sales plummeted when gas hit $4 per gallon, and many thought these gas-guzzling segments would never fully recover. That may be true, but for now Americans are once again getting more comfortable with trucks and SUVs. Truck sales fell below 10% of overall vehicle sales back in May and June, but the price of gas falling from an average of $4.11 per gallon to $2.78 has helped the share of trucks rise to 14.1% of the overall market for September. Depending on how buyers react to the

The R-Class won a design award, went on tour with the Rolling Stones, was dropped in price, and still sold so poorly that Mercedes admitted the car was a failure. Yet M-B head man Dieter Zetsche said the car isn't going away, so as one does with continuing product, the R-Class is getting some face and tail work done. Those who whisper about such things indicate that the car will end up looking more like the B-Class. We're not sure that will help it, since it looks much like the B-Class already a